Police on Monday booked prominent Goan writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee Datta Damodar Naik on charges of defamation after receiving complaints that he called temple priests “robbers” in a recent conversation.
Naik (70) who is also a businessman, said “he is a person who does not believe in God and is not afraid of development.
According to the police, another complaint was lodged at the Canacona police station by Satish Bhat, who alleges that in an interview with a regional news channel, Naik made derogatory remarks about Shree Samsthan Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam Math, located in Partagali, South Goa.
“In the interview, Naik called the temple priests as dacoits and robbers. In our culture, we respect everyone’s opinion, whether someone is an atheist or not. But with these words, he deliberately hurt religious sentiments and insulted our culture,” Bhat told The Indian Express.
Another complaint was lodged at Panaji police station on Saturday by Jayesh Thali of Gomantak Mandir and Religious Institutions Federation. The complaint says that Naik has committed a serious offense by calling “Bhat-Purohit” (priests) as “robbers”. “Although belief in God is a personal matter, making statements like these that place priests, temples and monasteries as looters is a crime under the law as it hurts religious sentiments and causes public unrest,” reads the complaint.
Police said an FIR has been lodged under section 299 of the BNS (deliberate and atrocious acts intended to insult or offend the religious sentiments of any section of citizens) and an investigation has been initiated.
Naik told the Indian Express, “I am an atheist and have been in the community for several years. In a recent event…I said that the temple priests were robbing the people of money… Later, I clarified that I meant they ‘extracted’ money… It’s true, temples extort money. I asked what was built with this money? Have they built any schools, hospitals? Where does all this money go?”
He said he knows that there is a police complaint filed against him. “I don’t know if the FIR has been changed. Still, I’m not afraid. What will they do? Tie me up? I have the freedom to express my opinion and I am not afraid. What about my feelings as an atheist? The space for rational thinking and discussion is shrinking,” he said.
Naik has written in Konkani, Marathi and English. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in Konkani in 2006 for his collection of essays, Jai Kai Jui. In the early 1990s, he founded the Samata Andolan, a group of rationalists from across Goa.
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